Michael Nyman: Life and Creativity

The work of Michael Nyman is known to the general public thanks to the pictures of director Peter Greenaway. However, only a few are familiar with his serious works, which today are classified as classics of world music art.

Biography

Michael Nyman was born in 1944 in one of the London suburbs in a family of Jews who emigrated from Poland.

He graduated from the prestigious school of Sir George Monox, and then studied at King's College London, where his teacher was a famous British composer and pianist Alan Bush. Later Naiman was admitted to the Royal Academy of Music. There the young man concentrated his attention on studying the works of European composers of the seventeenth century in the Baroque style.

During his studies, Michael Naiman was able to become a laureate of the Howard Carr Memorial Prize, and in 1965-1966 he was sent to Romania to study the country's musical folklore.

After returning to his homeland, Michael Naiman collaborated with the magazines The Listener, The Spectator and The New Statesman as a music critic and engaged in research in the field of contemporary art.

In 1974, his book-study "Experimental Music: John Cage and After It" was published.

Collaboration with Peter Greenaway

The first joint work of the composer with this famous film director, which brought Naiman world fame, was presented to the audience in 1976. However, they met long before that.

According to the memories of the maestro, they were brought together by a common acquaintance back in 1961. In subsequent years, the director and musician were friends, but there was no talk of cooperation. Only 15 years later, Greenaway suggested Naiman write a soundtrack to one of his paintings. Since it was during this period that the composer began to create in a minimalist style, his music suited perfectly to films that "music was not particularly needed."

The creative tandem Naiman-Greenway lasted for 15 years, for which the soundtracks were written for more than 20 pictures.

Among them are such well-known films as "Prospero Books" and "Count of Drowned Man".

The collaboration between the director and the composer stopped when they realized that the possibilities of joint creativity had been exhausted.

Michael Nyman. "Memorial"

The most memorable film melody, which the composer wrote for the Greenway films, is the composition "Memorial". This work sounds in the picture "Cook, a thief, his wife and her lover" and is one of the most frequently performed works of Naiman. "Memorial" is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the tragedy of the Eisel, which occurred in May 1985, when about 40 fans of the football club "Juventus" were killed in the crash of the stadium.

A little later a new version of this work was presented with another orchestration and vocal part.

Michael Nyman "The Piano"

The composer repeatedly collaborated with other directors. Among his most successful works is a special place for music to the picture "Piano" by Jane Campion. It is included in the list of 100 best soundtracks of all time. The Piano has won many prestigious film awards, including prizes and nominations for the best original musical accompaniment.

Creation

Michael Naiman is the owner of a multifaceted talent and diverse interests in the field of music. Confirmation of this is the creation of a chamber orchestra "Campbiello-band." In it, medieval instruments sound together with modern ones, and the repertoire includes the work of composers of the Baroque era, performed in an original manner.

In addition, in 2010, Naiman released the album "Music for Vertov," which includes soundtracks, written by him for the 2-nd film directed by Dziga Vertov.

The composer creates and works far from the classics. In particular, he is the author of the soundtrack for the computer game "EnemyZero", as well as rock and pop songs written with David Mack Elmont and Damon Albarn. He also owns several songs for the poems of Rimbaud, Shakespeare and Celan.

Thus, the music of Michael Nyman is used in a variety of qualities and is perfectly combined with both high poetry and rock ballads texts.

"Dido. Prologue"

In October 2012, the world premiere of the concert version of the opera by Michael Naiman took place in Perm. It was presented under the title "Dido and Prologue" and, speaking in cinematic language, is a prequel of a famous work by Henry Purcell, written 330 years ago. According to the plot of the new opera, the action takes place in 1689 in the boarding house of noble maidens in Chelsea. There comes tenor Henry Bowman, who was commissioned to stage the opera "Dido and Aeneas". Soon the girls he chose to participate in the play, and their teacher began to behave like the characters of the work of Purcell.

In the Perm premiere, the main roles were performed by the St. Petersburg singer Vladimir Vjurov, Maria Ludko and Natalia Kirillova. The maestro himself was not present at the premiere, although he was very glad that it was held in Russia, to which he cherishes long-standing love.

Own movies

Like all truly talented people, Michael Nyman finds for himself a different platform for self-expression. In particular, since 1968, the musician from time to time presents his own films to the public, which are shot on an amateur camera. The most famous of them are:

• "Love, love, love" (1968);
• "Moscow 11:19:31" (1997);
• "Naiman with a movie camera" (2010).

Now you know who the composer is Michael Lawrence Naiman. To many people, far from art, his music may seem strange and unusual. However, experts have long ago ranked Naiman among the classics, which rarely happens with composers during their lifetime.